Lighting a Bottle

[GB1]

Anyone have ideas on lighting and photographing a bottle? Worried about reflections here, as both the lights and camera will probably be seen on the glass. Also, really want to get the lighting to look right.

Info: Will be trying to recreate the Skyy Vodka ads for practice. Here's one I am interested in, though the others are also possibilities. I believe they've 'cleaned up' the bottle in post, but still want to light it right.

Thanks

G

[armando_m]

I do not think this is done in 1 shot, probably a composite of 2 photos, 1 with the bottle, another with the models

Bottle alone seems to have light from the sides

I shot a glass with no reflections, lighting it with the flash bounced of the wall behind the glass, a flag was used to prevent direct flash light on the glass, but it had water inside, with a dark bottle it will have to be from the sides .... I'm guessing here

[GB1]

Yeah, definitely not one shot .. at least 2 but probably 3-4.

I did some experiments at home with convention lighting - pretty different results.

Here's an article from my very own web page that I just found that might help, though like you said, the light here appears to be from the sides. It also appears that they have a long thin vertical light.

Light up the Floor - A Floor Lit Table Top Studio Project | DIYPhotography.net

[armando_m]

good link !

thanks for sharing it

[GB1]

I have been configuring a similar underneath lighting box the last few days. Needless to say, it's a bit harder than it seemed because finding the right sized box and flash support is critical to making the thing work. My studio strobe support isn't really strong enough to support the light's weight, though it is sorta working at the moment (but it could collapse at any time). Imperfections in the bottle, fingerprints, dust, etc are all your enemies. Another issue is that even at its lowest setting my flash it putting out so much light that the widest aperture I can shoot at is f 11 or so, risking the showing of detail in the black background. And I am still looking for black velvet.

Anyway, here's a very preliminary shot (VERY touched up in CS5). This is a totally different expt than the Skyy add I posted earlier.

[armando_m]

How about reducing the flash intensity with some white cloth over it ?
the sides of the bottle are not visible, are you planning to show it?
there certainly are no reflections at all ...

[GB1]

Armando -

Still experimenting and have a long way to go before I get to where I want to be, but here's the latest. I added an effect or two..

Lighting the bottle to show the sides will take a few tricks, I believe, like side illumination, possibly using pieces of colored cardboard so that the bottle captures their reflections, and a lot of post processing! I need to rearrange my shooting area too.

G

[geraldb]

Hahaha, the bottle in the original ad is not a photograph, it is a drawing. The light and reflections are of imaginary work. OR, it started as a photograph then converted to a drawing before stretching it in Adobe Illustrator. It cold also been created as a 3D illustration. Whatever it is, it is not a photograph for sure.

[armando_m]

Greg, nice progress

how is your current setup ?

[GB1]

geraldb, I agree that it probably isn't a traditional photograph, though I tend to think it isn't a pure graphical creation either, but a massaged photograph (or photographs) where they kept adjusting it until they got what they wanted! I guess the bottom line is that their bottle looks good. Being lit up like that draws attention to it, which is the purpose of the ad (there's all kinds of tricks out there to do this stuff. Saw some of them at the PS convention last year!).

Armando, my current setup is my garage, and it is quite chaotic I draped the background with a black cloth, but there are still way too many possible reflections behind the camera and I don't have the setup to add extra lights too easily, which may be helpful in getting different effects. Wish I had a dedicated (very clean) room for this stuff. Any ideas on how to make what I have better?

G

[SkipT]

I think it started as 3 or more photos but it is not a photo now its an ad which in my mind can't be done in one shot. Good work on the bottle shots but you will have to get your PS airbrush out to make it look 100% like the ad

[GB1]

Skip - Btw, thanks for your insight. I recently shot the human component part to recreate several of the Skyy ads, and now need to shoot the others more carefully than what you see here (different lighting, removal of the sticker on the back, etc) and start putting it together. Stay tuned!

G